2011 Sendai Earthquake And Tsunami, Tōhoku Region, Pacific Ocean

The Japanese National Police Agency has officially confirmed 1,647 deaths, 1,990 injuries, and 1,720 people missing across sixteen prefectures, but estimated numbers are far higher, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands dead or missing. The earthquake caused extensive damage in Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.4 million without water. Many electrical generators were taken down, and at least two nuclear reactors partially melted down, which prompted evacuations of the affected areas, and a state of emergency was established. Both reactor plants believed to have partially melted down have experienced a chemical explosion extensively damaging their buildings, but the integrity of the inner core-containment vessel was not compromised and no highly radioactive release from the plants have occurred. Residents within a 20 km (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km (6.2 mi) radius of the Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated. Early estimates from AIR Worldwide place insured losses from the earthquake and tsunami at $14.5 to $34.6 billion. Another estimate from CNN stated that losses would exceed $100 billion, with much of the damage being uninsured losses.
The estimates of the Sendai earthquake's magnitude made it the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began in 1900. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan stated during a press conference that "in the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan."